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Grab your zero-gravity sick bags; the next open beta for Echo Combat gets underway very soon.

Developer Ready at Dawn Studios recently confirmed that the next chance to play its Oculus Rift-exclusive shooter kicks off on August 16th (a Thursday), likely running through to end of the weekend on August 19th. This beta will be used to test the game’s combat gear, which can be seen in the video below. It basically has a lot of players crawling on the walls like spiders and throwing themselves between surfaces before blasting each other with hand-mounted weapons. Creepy.

Echo Combat is an action-based spin-off to Echo Arena and Ready at Dawn’s single-player epic, Lone Echo (which is also getting a sequel). As the name suggests, it trades the original game’s disc-throwing matches for intense shootouts that make full use of the revolutionary locomotion mechanics the developer has established. This is the third beta the game has had this year and we’ve really liked what we’ve played of the game so far.

No word yet when the full version of Echo Combat will go live, though when it does it will be as an expansion to Echo Arena itself.

For today’s livestream we’re digging back into the launch library of the PSVR for some racing fun with DriveClub VR. This is still one of my go-to VR games to show someone that’s new to the medium since I have a racing wheel setup to pair it with for added immersion.

There are lots of great VR racing games out there, such as Project Cars 2, DiRT Rally, and WipEout VR, but something always brings me back to DriveClub. I’m far from an expert at this game, but it’s such a blast to play.

We’ll be livestreaming DriveClub VR on PSVR today using an El Gato HD60 S and monitoring chat on a nearby PC. The stream will be starting later today at approximately 4:00 PM PT and we’ll aim to last for about an hour or so. We’ll be livestreaming directly to the UploadVR Facebook page. You can see the full stream embedded right here down below once it’s up:

DriveClub VR Livestream with Racing Wheel

Come watch us burn some rubber in DriveClub VR on PSVR! We're hitting the road with a racing wheel setup for true immersion.Read our full review of DriveClub VR here: https://uploadvr.com/driveclub-vr-review-psvr/

Posted by UploadVR on Monday, August 6, 2018

You can see our archived streams all in this one handy Livestream playlist over on the official UploadVR YouTube channel (which you should totally subscribe to by the way). All future and current streams will be on Facebook, which you can see a list of here.

Let us know which games you want us to livestream next and what you want to see us do, specifically, in DriveClub VR or other VR games. Comment with feedback down below!

Project Fusion’s VR-controlled robot arms could revolutionize remote collaboration. As part of an ongoing effort to create a real-life Dr. Octopus, researchers at Keio University’s Graduate School of Media Design in Tokyo, Japan have developed a specialized backpack device that includes a pair of robotic arms. Lead by University assistant professor Yamen Saraiji in collaboration

Experience life in Hiroshima before, during, and after nuclear warfare decimated the famous Japanese city. On August 6th, 1945, at 8:15 in the morning, the United States military dropped the nuclear weapon “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima, a major urban center located on the Japanese island of Honshu. Upon detonation, over 70,000 human

Firewall: Zero Hour is just around the corner with only a few weeks remaining before launch. In preparation for the game we’ve rounded up all of the information we’ve got so far on this highly anticipated release. Once Firewall is out on PSVR, you’ll already be locked and loaded to jump in.

So here’s everything you need to know about PSVR-exclusive shooter, Firewall: Zero Hour!

What Is It?

Firewall: Zero Hour is a PSVR-exclusive tactical, team-based first-person shooter. In the game you pick one of 12 different contractors, form a team of up to four total players with AI bots filling in empty slots, and fight against another team of four.

Gameplay is slow-paced and methodical, similar to non-VR game, Rainbow Six Siege, or PC VR-exclusive shooter, Onward. There are no respawns during matches and the objectives are more complex than simply “kill the other team” to encourage teamwork and strategy.

We’ve gone hands-on with the game on multiple occasions, so you can read more about why we think this could be the next great VR shooter right here and right here.

How Many Game Modes?

In Firewall: Zero Hour there is only one single game mode: Contracts. In this game mode two teams of four fight against each other on a single map. The objective is for the Attacking team to locate and steal sensitive information by hacking a firewall and retrieving intel off of a laptop inside the level. The Defending team’s goal is to prevent the Attacking team from getting the information. Either team can also win by killing all members of the other team.

What makes matches extra intense is that there are no respawns at all. Once you’re dead, you’re out until the next match.

The main way of playing this game mode will be through competitive 4v4 online multiplayer, but that isn’t the only way of playing. You can also fill in empty team slots with AI bots or even play purely cooperatively as a team of 4 players against 4 bots. These are all considered “Training” modes.

Both Contracts and Training will be playable in either Public or Private varieties, however, you only earn XP and rewards for playing Public matches. All game modes require an internet connection to play.

What About Single Player?

There will be a single player option in Firewall: Zero Hour, but it’s just another “Training” mode focused on the same objectives as Contracts multiplayer. The only difference is that all seven of the other contractors are all AI bots.

This means that there is not a structured, narrative campaign. If you’re looking for a story mode similar to DOOM VFR or Farpoint, then you should look elsewhere.

Even the single player Training mode requires an internet connection to play.

How Do Contractors And Progression Work?

There are a total of 12 different Contractors in Firewall: Zero Hour. Visually each of them look different and have their own personal background stories informing their voice over style, name, and abilities. Although all 12 play the same mechanically in terms of actual controls on your controller, they differ

Every year PlayStation’s Spanish arm helps out young indie developers looking to bring new titles to PS4 via its PlayStation Talents Games Camp. The program provides selected studios with office space for 10 months and equipment to create titles that will then be marketed by PlayStation itself. One of this year’s participants is working on a PSVR title.

That title is Echoes VR, which is in development at a student developer named Rogue Titan Games. It’s a stealth experience in which players explore a network of caves infested with monsters. You can see a gameplay video below; it’s essentially a first-person shooter (FPS) in which you have to stay out of the way of enemies.

Given the game is being developed by a small indie team finding its feet you can forgive the fairly rusty-looking animations and environments. Presentation aside, if the game nails the survival aspects, it could be a pretty tense affair.

If, like me, you’re not especially drawn to Electronauts’ brand of dance music, there’s a good chance you’ve already written off Survios’ latest VR app in your mind. But, having bitten the bullet and drowned myself in silky synth sounds, I’d urge you not to be so hasty.

Electronauts is like a virtual portal into a world I never really understood. In the space of five minutes it turned me from the guy leaning against the wall of the nightclub, arms folded and waiting to go home into that hyperactive dancer that’s in front of the DJ booth jumping up and down, wearing glow-in-the-dark paint and slipping a worrying amount of recreational drugs into his mouth. It’s a neon-drenched cathedral of electronic ecstasy that gives you your own little world to play Daft Punk in, and it can be quite hypnotizing.

Whereas other VR DJ apps have strived to accurately replicate the authentic experience, Electronauts feels more like a translation of the core tenants of DJing for VR, reimagining them in an accessible and engaging way. I don’t even have the slightest hint of an idea of how to arrange track on a computer, but after a five minute tutorial in Electronauts I became a music god, a lord of the beats that could do no wrong. Orbs were struck with drumsticks to produce groovy beats, grenades were tossed to explode with psychedelic audio effects and vocals were swapped around and skipped, and yet none of it ever felt like I was an amateur playing in a world I couldn’t get to grips with.

Intuition is key. Rather than teaching you the technicalities of hundreds of different features, Survios often finds the simplest means of doing the most complex things. Want to add glitches into a track? Pull up the FX cube and wave your wand around inside. The position of your marker provides different results, and you can find the desired effect simply by sliding your controller around. Need to record your creations to put them on a loop? Simply hold down a dedicated button and your next actions will be memorized and repeated. Though it may grab the attention of enthusiasts, everything is designed to work with as little friction as possible, and it’s one of the app’s strongest points.

It’s also down to the simple fact that Electronauts is one of the slickest, best-polished VR experiences released on VR headsets this year. The app’s bright and bold colors produce a striking visual style that shines even on PSVR, and Survios’ algorithm for replicating the movement of your arms inside VR is probably the best I’ve seen so far. It’s just a shame that the game’s co-op options couldn’t make the console version, though (Survios says it could add support if there’s enough demand).

Granted the 20-strong tracklist is decidedly enthusiast, with only a few names I can recognize and a handful of which are made by the developer itself. The team is committed to bring more music to the game though and,